Jerdon's babbler (''Chrysomma altirostre'') is a
passerine bird native to
wetlands
A wetland is a distinct semi-aquatic ecosystem whose groundcovers are flooded or saturated in water, either permanently, for years or decades, or only seasonally. Flooding results in oxygen-poor ( anoxic) processes taking place, especially ...
and grasslands of the
Indian sub-continent
The Indian subcontinent is a physiographic region of Asia below the Himalayas which projects into the Indian Ocean between the Bay of Bengal to the east and the Arabian Sea to the west. It is now divided between Bangladesh, India, and Pakis ...
. It is listed as
Vulnerable on the
IUCN Red List
The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species, also known as the IUCN Red List or Red Data Book, founded in 1964, is an inventory of the global conservation status and extinction risk of biological ...
since 1994.
It is a member of the genus ''
Chrysomma
''Chrysomma'' is a songbird genus. It is quite closely related to the parrotbills, and is therefore a member of the family Paradoxornithidae.
Taxonomy
The genus ''Chrysomma'' was introduced in 1843 by the English zoologist Edward Blyth. He de ...
'' of the family
Paradoxornithidae
The parrotbills are a family, Paradoxornithidae, of passerine birds that are primarily native to East, Southeast and South Asia, with a single species in western North America, though feral populations exist elsewhere. They are generally smal ...
.
The common name commemorates the surgeon-naturalist
Thomas C. Jerdon.
Description

Measuring 16–17 cm in length, it is quite intermediate in
habitus between certain
typical warbler
The typical warblers are small birds belonging to the genus ''Sylvia'' in the "Old World warbler" (or sylviid warbler) family Sylviidae.Del Hoyo, J.; Elliot, A., & Christie, D. (editors). (2006). ''Handbook of the Birds of the World''. Volume 1 ...
s (''Sylvia'') and the
parrotbill
The parrotbills are a family, Paradoxornithidae, of passerine birds that are primarily native to East, Southeast and South Asia, with a single species in western North America, though feral populations exist elsewhere. They are generally small ...
s (''Paradoxornis''). Like these, it is a drab bird with a long tail used to balance when creeping through the vegetation; its bill is thicker than in ''Sylvia'' but not as heavy as in ''Paradoxornis''.
Buffy
chestnut brown above and a slightly lighter yellowish-brown on the belly, its
lore
Lore may refer to:
* Folklore, acquired knowledge or traditional beliefs
* Oral lore or oral tradition, orally conveyed cultural knowledge and traditions
Places
* Loré, former French commune
* Loré (East Timor), a city and subdistrict in La ...
s are pale greyish, as are the throat and breast. The tail and a wing patch are redder than the rest of the upperside. The legs and feet are dark, the bill is greyish-horn colored above and pale below; the eyes'
irides are yellowish-brown and a thin nude ring of greenish-yellow skin surrounds the eye. The sexes are alike; young birds have a more orange hue to the upperside plumage, and the lower bill is pink. Differences between
subspecies
In Taxonomy (biology), biological classification, subspecies (: subspecies) is a rank below species, used for populations that live in different areas and vary in size, shape, or other physical characteristics (Morphology (biology), morpholog ...
are slight, with the central population essentially having richer chestnut brown and darker grey colours.
[
Its relative, the yellow-eyed babbler (''C. sinense''), looks like a brighter version of the same but has somewhat more vivid colors, with white replacing grey in the plumage, an additional white ]supercilium
The supercilium is a plumage feature found on the heads of some bird species. It is a stripe which runs from the base of the bird's beak above its eye, finishing somewhere towards the rear of the bird's head.Dunn and Alderfer (2006), p. 10 Also k ...
, yellowish legs, feet and irides, and an orange-yellow eye-ring.
Taxonomy
''Chrysomma altirostre'' was the scientific name
In Taxonomy (biology), taxonomy, binomial nomenclature ("two-term naming system"), also called binary nomenclature, is a formal system of naming species of living things by giving each a name composed of two parts, both of which use Latin gramm ...
proposed by Thomas C. Jerdon in 1862 for a pale reddish brown babbler collected near Thayetmyo
Thayet (; pronounced ) is a capital city in Thayet District of Magway Region in central Myanmar (Burma). It is a port on the right (western) bank of the Irrawaddy River, across and just south of Allanmyo, between Pyay (Prome) and Magway. Thaye ...
in northern Myanmar
Myanmar, officially the Republic of the Union of Myanmar; and also referred to as Burma (the official English name until 1989), is a country in northwest Southeast Asia. It is the largest country by area in Mainland Southeast Asia and has ...
. ''Pyctorhis griseigularis'' proposed by Allan Octavian Hume
Allan Octavian Hume, Order of the Bath, CB Indian Civil Service, ICS (4 June 1829 – 31 July 1912) was a British political reformer, ornithologist, civil servant and botanist who worked in British Raj, British India and was the founding spirit ...
in 1877 was a ferruginous red babbler collected in the Dooars
The Dooars or Duars () are the alluvial floodplains in eastern-northeastern India and southern Bhutan that lie south of the outer foothills of the Himalayas and north of the Brahmaputra River basin. This region is about wide and stretches ov ...
of Bhutan
Bhutan, officially the Kingdom of Bhutan, is a landlocked country in South Asia, in the Eastern Himalayas between China to the north and northwest and India to the south and southeast. With a population of over 727,145 and a territory of , ...
. ''Pyctorhis altirostris scindicus'' proposed by Herbert Hastings Harington
Herbert Hastings Harington (16 January 1868 – 8 March 1916) was a British Indian Army officer and Ornithology, ornithologist who worked in Burma and wrote on the List of birds of Myanmar, birds of the region.
Harington was born in Lucknow to ...
in 1915 was an earthy brown babbler from Sukkur
Sukkur is a city in the Pakistani province of Sindh along the western bank of the Indus River, directly across from the historic city of Rohri. Sukkur is the List of cities in Sindh by population, third largest city in Sindh after Karachi and H ...
in Sindh, Pakistan
Sindh ( ; ; , ; abbr. SD, historically romanized as Sind or Scinde) is a province of Pakistan. Located in the southeastern region of the country, Sindh is the third-largest province of Pakistan by land area and the second-largest provin ...
.
Three subspecies
In Taxonomy (biology), biological classification, subspecies (: subspecies) is a rank below species, used for populations that live in different areas and vary in size, shape, or other physical characteristics (Morphology (biology), morpholog ...
are recognized, based mainly on their allopatric
Allopatric speciation () – also referred to as geographic speciation, vicariant speciation, or its earlier name the dumbbell model – is a mode of speciation that occurs when biological populations become geographically isolated from ...
ranges:[
*''C. a. altirostre'' occurs in the ]floodplain
A floodplain or flood plain or bottomlands is an area of land adjacent to a river. Floodplains stretch from the banks of a river channel to the base of the enclosing valley, and experience flooding during periods of high Discharge (hydrolog ...
s of the Ayeyarwady River
The Irrawaddy River (, , Ayeyarwady) is the principal river of Myanmar, running through the centre of the country. Myanmar’s most important commercial waterway, it is about 1,350 miles (2,170 km) long. Originating from the confluence of the ...
from Bhamo
Bhamo ( ''ban: mau mrui.'', also spelt Banmaw), historically known as Manmaw (; ) or Hsinkai () is a city in Kachin State in northern Myanmar, south of the state capital, (Myitkyina). It is on the Ayeyarwady River. It lies within of the border ...
to Bago and up the Sittaung River
The Sittaung River ( ; formerly, the Sittang or Sittoung) is a river in south central Myanmar in Bago Division. The Pegu Range separates its basin from that of the Irrawaddy. The river originates at the edge of the Shan Hills southeast of M ...
nearly to Taungoo
Taungoo (, ''Tauñngu myoú''; ), also spelled Toungoo and formerly Toung-ngú, is a district-level city in the Bago Region of Myanmar, 220 km from Yangon, towards the north-eastern end of the division, with mountain ranges to the east a ...
in Myanmar
*''C. a. griseigularis'' occurs in the Terai
The Terai or Tarai is a lowland region in parts of southern Nepal and northern India that lies to the south of the outer foothills of the Himalayas, the Sivalik Hills and north of the Indo-Gangetic Plain.
This lowland belt is characterised by ...
from western Nepal
Nepal, officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal, is a landlocked country in South Asia. It is mainly situated in the Himalayas, but also includes parts of the Indo-Gangetic Plain. It borders the Tibet Autonomous Region of China Ch ...
to northeastern India
Northeast India, officially the North Eastern Region (NER), is the easternmost region of India representing both a geographic and political administrative division of the country. It comprises eight states—Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, M ...
*''C. a. scindicum'' occurs in the Indus River
The Indus ( ) is a transboundary river of Asia and a trans-Himalayas, Himalayan river of South Asia, South and Central Asia. The river rises in mountain springs northeast of Mount Kailash in the Western Tibet region of China, flows northw ...
basin
Distribution and habitat
Jerdon's babbler lives all-year-round near river courses, where it inhabits dense reedbed
A reedbed or reed bed is a natural habitat found in floodplains, waterlogged depressions and
estuaries. Reedbeds are part of a succession from young reeds colonising open water or wet ground through a gradation of increasingly dry ground. As ...
s and tall grasslands consisting of cogongrass (''Imperata cylindrica''), common reed
''Phragmites australis'', known as the common reed, is a species of flowering plant in the grass family Poaceae. It is a wetland grass that can grow up to tall and has a cosmopolitan distribution worldwide.
Description
''Phragmites australis' ...
(''Phragmites'') and reedmace (''Typha'') species. In Pakistan, it occurs along the Indus and its tributaries. In Punjab, India
Punjab () is a States and union territories of India, state in northwestern India. Forming part of the larger Punjab, Punjab region of the Indian subcontinent, the state is bordered by the States and union territories of India, Indian states ...
, it was recorded in Harike Wildlife Sanctuary.
In the Terai, it was recorded in Shuklaphanta National Park
Shuklaphanta National Park is a national park in the Terai of the Far-Western Region, Nepal, covering of open grasslands, forests, riverbeds and wetlands at an elevation of . It is bounded by the Mahakali river in the west and south. A small p ...
and Dudhwa National Park
Dudhwa National Park is a national park in the Terai belt of marshy grasslands in northern Uttar Pradesh, India. It stretches over an area of , with a buffer zone of . It is part of the Dudhwa Tiger Reserve in the Kheri and Lakhimpur districts ...
.
In northeast India, it was sighted in Kaziranga, Orang, Manas and Dibru-Saikhowa National Parks, Majuli
Majuli (also spelled Majoli) is the largest river island in Assam, a state in northeastern India. It is bordered by the Brahmaputra River to the South and East, the Subansiri River to the West, and an anabranch of the Brahmaputra River.
The is ...
, and D'Ering Memorial Wildlife Sanctuary.
In Myanmar, it was thought to be extinct
Extinction is the termination of an organism by the death of its Endling, last member. A taxon may become Functional extinction, functionally extinct before the death of its last member if it loses the capacity to Reproduction, reproduce and ...
, but rediscovered in May 2014 in the lower Ayeyarwady floodplain near Yangon
Yangon, formerly romanized as Rangoon, is the capital of the Yangon Region and the largest city of Myanmar. Yangon was the List of capitals of Myanmar, capital of Myanmar until 2005 and served as such until 2006, when the State Peace and Dev ...
.
Plants dominating its favorite habitat are typically tall reeds several meters in height. In the Indus River basin, it is associated with hardy sugarcane ('' Tripidium arundinaceum'') and kans grass (''Saccharum spontaneum''). In the dooars, it also lives in stands of ravennagrass ('' Tripidium ravennae''). On the other hand, sugarcane plantings or other single-species reedbeds as well as lower growth are not very attractive to the species. Other plants, typically grasses, are found to a lesser extent in the bird's haunts, including satintails, giant cane (''Arundo donax
''Arundo donax'' is a tall perennial cane. It is one of several so-called reed species. It has several common names including giant cane, elephant grass, carrizo, arundo, Spanish cane, Colorado river reed, wild cane, and giant reed. ''Arundo'' a ...
''), vetiver or ''khus'' ('' Chrysopogon zizanioides''), ''Desmostachya bipinnata
''Desmostachya bipinnata'', commonly known as halfa grass, big cordgrass, and salt reed-grass, is an Old World perennial grass, long known and used in human history. The grass is tall, tufted, leafy, perennial grass, branching from the base, erec ...
'' and '' Themeda arundinacea''.
Behaviour and ecology
Its song is a weak 4- to 8-note warbling ''chi-chi-chi-chew-chew-chew'', ''tew-tew-tew-tew chew'' or ''ih-ih-ih-ih chew chitit chew i'wwiuu'', with a drawn-out end note and sometimes starting with a chatter of ''itch, itit'' or ''tchew''. Birds sing usually in the early morning and in the evening, perching upright on a reed, with the head slightly elevated. Calls include a short ''tic'' or ''tsik'', sometimes extended into a series ''ts-ts-tsik'' which may end in a plaintive ''tew''.[ Pairs or families, occasionally small flocks of 1-2 dozen, move about quietly in dense stands of grasses and reeds that grow several meters high, usually avoiding lower growth and shrubland. A typical ]foraging
Foraging is searching for wild food resources. It affects an animal's fitness because it plays an important role in an animal's ability to survive and reproduce. Foraging theory is a branch of behavioral ecology that studies the foraging behavi ...
technique involves perching nearly horizontally on a reed stem, picking up a leaf sheath
A leaf (: leaves) is a principal appendage of the stem of a vascular plant, usually borne laterally above ground and specialized for photosynthesis. Leaves are collectively called foliage, as in "autumn foliage", while the leaves, stem, fl ...
with the bill, and quickly tearing off the leaf and its base sheet to expose small arthropod
Arthropods ( ) are invertebrates in the phylum Arthropoda. They possess an arthropod exoskeleton, exoskeleton with a cuticle made of chitin, often Mineralization (biology), mineralised with calcium carbonate, a body with differentiated (Metam ...
s and other invertebrate
Invertebrates are animals that neither develop nor retain a vertebral column (commonly known as a ''spine'' or ''backbone''), which evolved from the notochord. It is a paraphyletic grouping including all animals excluding the chordata, chordate s ...
s. The tearing of dry leaves produces a subdued crackling sound that can sometimes be heard from some dozens of meters away.
Conservation status
Jerdon's babbler is nowhere common and thought to be declining. Its continuing existence in Bangladesh
Bangladesh, officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by population, eighth-most populous country in the world and among the List of countries and dependencies by ...
is uncertain. The subspecies ''scindicum'' is known to be rare and has been declining throughout recent decades. Altogether, less than 10,000 adult birds are thought to remain. This means that its population has declined by an estimated 30% and is expected to continue to do so for another decade at least. The reasons are not fully understood, but the population reduction is probably related to habitat destruction
Habitat destruction (also termed habitat loss or habitat reduction) occurs when a natural habitat is no longer able to support its native species. The organisms once living there have either moved elsewhere, or are dead, leading to a decrease ...
by drainage
Drainage is the natural or artificial removal of a surface's water and sub-surface water from an area with excess water. The internal drainage of most agricultural soils can prevent severe waterlogging (anaerobic conditions that harm root gro ...
and damming
A dam is a barrier that stops or restricts the flow of surface water or underground streams. Reservoirs created by dams not only suppress floods but also provide water for activities such as irrigation, human consumption, industrial use, aqua ...
of wetlands
A wetland is a distinct semi-aquatic ecosystem whose groundcovers are flooded or saturated in water, either permanently, for years or decades, or only seasonally. Flooding results in oxygen-poor ( anoxic) processes taking place, especially ...
for agriculture and flood control
Flood management or flood control are methods used to reduce or prevent the detrimental effects of flood waters. Flooding can be caused by a mix of both natural processes, such as extreme weather upstream, and human changes to waterbodies and ru ...
, and these threats are not expected to cease anytime soon. Presently, such habitat is extremely rare. Sustainable
Sustainability is a social goal for people to co-exist on Earth over a long period of time. Definitions of this term are disputed and have varied with literature, context, and time. Sustainability usually has three dimensions (or pillars): env ...
cutting of reedbeds, which yield material for human use, is apparently tolerated by ''C. altirostre''. In Pakistan, it is often sighted in the Rohri Canal south of Khairpur
Khairpur ( Sindhi, ) is a city and the capital of the Khairpur Mirs District of Pakistan's Sindh province.
History
The Talpur dynasty was established in 1783 by Mir Fateh Ali Khan, who declared himself the first ''Rais'', or ruler of Sindh, a ...
. Large flocks are found in partially cut or burned reedbeds, thus if large-scale clear-cutting is avoided, human use of reeds may in fact improve habitat
In ecology, habitat refers to the array of resources, biotic factors that are present in an area, such as to support the survival and reproduction of a particular species. A species' habitat can be seen as the physical manifestation of its ...
quality by preventing the simultaneous aging and decay of wide stretches of habitat. As a rule-of-thumb, as long as a healthy population of ''Phragmites'' reeds persists, the birds are likely to persist too. In 2019, it was rediscovered in the wetlands of Wakema Township
Wakema Township ( ) is a township of Myaungmya District in central Ayeyarwady Region, Myanmar. The first Prime Minister of Burma, U Nu was born in the principal town, Wakema.
Wakema Township is bordered to its west by the other townships within ...
, Myanmar during a conservation study after being last sighted in Myanmar in 1941.
References
Further reading
* Collar, Nigel J.; Andreev, A.V.; Chan, S.; Crosby, M.J.; Subramanya, S. & Tobias, J.A. (eds.) (2001). ''Chrysomma altirostre In: Threatened Birds of Asia: The BirdLife International Red Data Book'': 2112–2119. BirdLife International.
External links
*
{{Taxonbar, from=Q3179511
Jerdon's babbler
Jerdon's babbler
Birds of Bhutan
Birds of Northeast India
Birds of Nepal
Birds of Pakistan
Jerdon's babbler